The ISU gymnastics team tallied its first victory of the season in Hilton Coliseum Friday night, placing second in a tri-meet versus Illinois State and No. 7 Michigan.

The Cyclones went 1-1 on the night with a score of 194.6. The effort was enough to prevail over the Redbirds who posted 187.4 points, but the Cyclones fell short against a top ten Michigan squad that hung 196.525 on the scoreboard. 

Junior Caitlin Brown put forth the top individual performance of the night for the Cyclones, scoring 39.125 points in the all-around competition, .2 behind the all-around winner on the evening, Michigan’s Joanna Sampson. 

Brown tied a team record in the floor exercise and posted personal bests on the uneven parallel bars and the all-around results.

Brown said that setting personal bests would be beneficial for her personal performance heading into the team’s next meet at Oklahoma.

“Oklahoma is very good, and to know … that we are capable of being better, that’s a huge confidence boost,” Brown said. “It’s just keeping your mental game on point, staying focused and having a good time. The gymnastics have been there all pre-season. It’s just a matter of doing it in front of everyone.”

ISU coach Jay Ronayne said cleaner landings as being the key to improvement in general, as well as a victory against No. 3 Oklahoma in the team’s next meet. 

“It always is something we focus on, but now we have some clear proof that this is something we have to take care of or we’re just going to start with a deficit every single meet,” Ronayne said. “It is something we will be focused on heading into Oklahoma.”

The Cyclones will take on the Sooners at 7:00 p.m on Jan. 17 in Norman, Okla.